The bedbug, a well-known pest, has enjoyed a recent resurgence. While theories and explanations for the cause of increased numbers of bedbugs are many, the most frequently expressed are the discontinuance of lethal pesticides, a growing resistance to pesticides, and the presence of bedbugs and larvae in imported goods and packaging for goods. It has been reported that bedbugs cannot survive a temperature above 115 degrees Fahrenheit (46 degrees Centigrade), and various devices and methods have attempted to take advantage of this fact.
One example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,690,148 (Hedman) teaches and describes a method of treating pests which comprises heating an enclosed space to a temperature above that necessary to kill insects such as bedbugs, bedbug larvae, and eggs. The '148 patent and related U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,892,491 and 6,327,812 all describe variations of this approach to controlling insect infestations.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,806,238 teaches and describes a biological vacuum device to enhance environmental quality in which a vacuum cleaner has a vacuum wand and a heated air exhaust tube. Heated air from the exhaust tube is used to flush bedbugs from their hiding places while the vacuum wand is used to collect them.
The foregoing patents are incorporated herein by reference as fully as if they had been set forth in their entireties herein.
Heating an entire enclosed space such as a residence is time consuming, costly, requires a great deal of equipment, is not adapted to be performed often and may damage some of the contents of the space. The use of the device described in the '238 patent requires visual location and identification of insects and further requires the collected insects, which may still be alive, to be properly killed.
I have determined that the collection and eradication of bedbugs may be accomplished through use of a combination vacuum and heating device which is of a convenient size, may be used frequently and will not only collect but kill adult bedbugs and their larvae and eggs within the device and its collection system.